Studio Wildcard has introduced that the upcoming open-world survival sport ARK II, has been delayed from its earlier 2023 launch window to late 2024 “for the betterment of the ultimate product and the crew’s well-being.” The sport will launch for Xbox Collection X/S and PC by way of Steam and Microsoft Retailer. It would even be accessible on Xbox Recreation Go day one.
The total assertion relating to the delay by way of the developer:
After cautious consideration, now we have determined to delay the sequel’s launch to the tip of 2024, when it would nonetheless launch completely on Xbox, Recreation Go, and Home windows distribution platforms (Steam / PC). We’ve put a lot thought into delaying ARK II for the betterment of the ultimate product and the crew’s well-being. This information shall be disappointing to many—we really feel it too—however we’re assured this heavy determination is the appropriate one.
So why the delay? Our aim is to make ARK II the perfect sport it may be and supply a really distinctive and rewarding expertise for gamers. Unreal Engine 5 is extremely new expertise to us (and all builders), and we purpose to make use of this cutting-edge tech to its fullest potential whereas making a sport with never-before-achieved scope at Studio Wildcard. As we study extra in regards to the engine and develop the sequel, now we have tailored our workflows and adjusted our pipelines to accommodate this new next-generation paradigm, and due to every little thing that entails, we’d like extra time for improvement.
We sincerely apologize for this delay and genuinely admire your understanding. Your assist and fervour are very important to us, and we are going to proceed to work intensively to ship the final word next-gen dinosaur survival expertise. With that in thoughts, we don’t plan to showcase any gameplay / screenshots / movies of ARK II this 12 months; nevertheless, we intend to maintain you knowledgeable and engaged within the improvement course of by frequently showcasing extra ARK II belongings within the months forward, resulting in our gameplay reveal subsequent 12 months.
However! Our want to push the boundaries of what ARK II is on a next-generation platform has led us to the choice to create an middleman Unreal Engine 5 ARK product using among the new expertise we’re constructing, permitting us to additional our mastery of the brand new engine and finally battle-test a few of our riskier technical developments. We’ll achieve a deep understanding of how nicely the rendering and lighting strategies work on console, what efficiency shall be like, whether or not we are able to optimize and ship interactive water and foliage on a widescale foundation, and far more. We are going to ship cross-platform modding, cross-platform multiplayer and a brand new account system, informing us about different adjustments we should always think about for ARK II. As a result of scope of all of the technical and quality-of-life adjustments required for such a next-gen expertise, it’s not possible to make this new model of ARK backward suitable, which led us to conclude that this is able to must be a separate product.
We additionally acknowledge that ARK II has some fairly vital design adjustments from the unique sport, which can not make it as interesting to everybody (taking a look at you, Soulslike fight, primitive-only weaponry, and strict third-person mechanics—and an total “very severe” tone), which is why we really feel it’s important to supply gamers with a completely next-gen model of the unique expertise to make sure that followers can proceed to benefit from the ARK they know for years to return.
We’re thrilled to share this new ARK journey with you this 12 months—bringing gamers from PC, Xbox, and PlayStation collectively in a next-generation model of the sport you’re keen on, topped off with revolutionary cross-platform modding.
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